M:TG: A Quick Flyover (Worldwake Flyover Deck)

(Here’s a link to the official Wizards website with a full deck list of all the Worldwake decks – Flyover is conveniently at the top – http://tinyurl.com/65ab8n5)

An ‘Intro Pack’ is a 41-card deck pre-constructed for play with friends. They generally come with 18 lands, two of which are non-basic, and the rest differ between creatures and other spells.

They also come with a foil rare and another rare, the foil in the Worldwake Flyover deck is Archon of Redemption. The other rare is Marshal’s Anthem, which we’ll talk about later.

Until Emeria is freed, he raises his sword in her name.

The first of several flying creatures, except the Archon is a great way of gaining life by just playing creatures, which is the point of this deck, to play creatures and fly straight over the opponent’s crap respective creatures.

Other notable creatures include two Apex Hawks, an expensive early creature being a 2/2 for 2W mana, but a good card to have on tap later in the game for the Multikicker ability, giving it a +1/+1 counter for each time it was kicked (for 1W mana each boot). And of course, it’s flying. There is also a blue creature – Enclave Elite – which works similarly to the Apex Hawks with the same Multikicker ability, and is still a 2/2 for 2U, but has Islandwalk instead of Flying.

A creature which seems a little out of place in this particular deck is Kor Cartographer, a very expensive 2/2 for 3W mana, but when it enters the battlefield you can take a plains from your library and put it ontop the battlefield tapped. A fine ability, but perhaps unnecessary for what I intend the deck for, which is low powered creatures and control (I’ll go into more specific strategies I have planned towards the end of the article).

In way of blue creatures, there’s only a couple, but two in particular stand out. First is Voyager Drake, who you can Multikick to give other creatures flying until EOT for U each one, a very useful ability. The other creature is my favourite in the deck, because it’s a flying jellyfish! That’s right: Gomazoa. A 2U jellyfish with Defender, Flying and it’s a 0/3. But most notably is Gomazoa’s ability to put itself as well as every creature it’s blocking into their owners’ libraries – a good combo with Echo Circlet.

Before I go onto possible strategies, and outlining what I’m planning on doing, let’s talk about a couple spells!

There are a few control spells, the first you’ll find being Iona’s Judgment (4W Sorcery) which allows you to exile target creature OR enchantment… A bit expensive, maybe, but a must when it can take out an enchantment as well!

The next card is Marshal’s Anthem, an excellent card that for only 2WW (1W kicker) mana gives all your creatures (not just white) +1/+1, and you can also bring X target creatures back from your graveyard to the battlefield with the Multikicker ability, which the uses are pretty obvious.

To name a few other spells, we’ve got a couple Guardian Zendikons to enchant your lands to become 2/6 white wall defenders, as well a single pacifism – an excellent card, but a shame there’s only one. With blue spells, you’ve got a very nice Unsummon, but again there is only one, as well as a Sleep to make your opponents creatures tapped until their next end step, making it clear for a direct attack.

Before I give a quick mention to the lands, there’s one more card that deserves a quick mention: Everflowing Chalice. It is the only artifact, but before you feel too out of depth, it’s another Multikicker, so we’re all good. Once it’s on the battlefield, you can tap it to add 1 to your mana for EACH charge counter on it – the charge counters you get for each kick – and it costs 0 to put on the field, so you’re just paying for the kicks! It’s a useful card in almost any deck, and a good way to get more mana, though you will have to spend your early mana for the kicks.

Finally – Lands.

You have 9 plains and only 7 islands (total: 16), remember it’s only a 41-card deck, but it should still have more than that – it does. As it’s a deck using more than one colour, they’ve added a Terramorphic Expanse – which you can tap and sacrifice to search your library for a basic land card and put it on the battlefield tapped, adding a bit of flexibility if you’re short for one colour. The other non-basic land is Dread Sanctuary; which you can use as a regular land to add 1 to your mana pool, but you can also pay 4 to turn it into a 4/2 Golem artifact creature until end of turn. The lands are all of course Worldwake (save for Terramorphic Expanse which is M10), which are some of my favourite land artwork (if you’re into that sort of thing).

STRATEGIES/CHANGES

Overall, it’s a fine starter deck to then modify yourself with your own cards. On top of all the cards I’ve already specified, it’s got a few more creatures to simply fill the spots and one until EOT enchantment (Righteousness), and that’s about it. But it is a start.

The first thing that came to mind about this deck, was that it was missing big creatures, the biggest in it being a 3/4 (not including the Multikickers). The first thing I’m going to add is a few Serra Angels – 4/4 flyers with Vigilance (an ability that I find to be quite underrated). Another thing that just struck me, is the lack of control (and I like control), so I would recommend adding a couple U counters (Cancel, Negate, Remove Creature, maybe even a Redirect, etc), as well as another Pacifism or two, and definitely one or two prints of Journey to Nowhere.

That’s pretty much everything. Now I’ve dissected the deck, I know what’s in it and a little about how it works. Now it’s time to actually make the changes, so feel free to stop reading now – this will be me jotting down some thoughts as I go – thanks for reading!

As a semi-experienced U player, I’m going to look at adding white cards first, as I’m less familiar with them. The first card on the pile in front of me is Elspeth Tirel – the white planeswalker from the Scars of Mirrodin Block.

Elspeth has some nice abilities, especially with a lot of little creatures, so I can use the first ability to gain 1 life for each creature I control, which would give her +2 loyalty points, putting her on 6. That’s high enough for her ‘big’ ability, but that really puts me off putting her in this deck. It’s not really a token deck, though I could get some with her -2 ability (which would be three 1/1 white soldier tokens), it’s a huge risk because I may have lots of good creatures on the battlefield (even enchantments) which would be destroyed. Thinking about it, I will put her in just to test – if I’m being attacked by big creatures that I can’t deal with, she can even the battlefield at least.

Elspeth Tirel – IN

The next card is White Sun’s Zenith, another from Mirrodin Besieged. It would be one way to settle my token problems if I were ever to use Elspeth, as it costs XWWW and gives me X 2/2 white cat tokens. I’ll put it in the maybe pile, and revisit it later.

White Sun’s Zenith – MAYBE

The next card is the aforementioned Victory’s Herald, which I’m definitely putting in. As for each time it attacks, all attacking creatures gain flying and lifelink until EOT – that could be a lot of life!

Victory’s Herald – IN

They’re the main three I wasn’t sure about, and now I finally have a chance to use them. Other cards I’ll be adding include: More Iona’s Judgment, a few Journey to Nowhere, War Priest of Thune (possibly two of him), maybe Armored Ascension and/or other auras. I will also be adding some blue spells, mostly counters and Preordains, which are always handy. Another thing I’ll definitely be swapping out are some of the little creatures, like Silvercoat Lion and Stormfront Pegasus, which I will swap for some Leonin Skyhunters; 2/2s with Flying for WW.

The only thing left to consider is artifacts. Which I’ve added a couple equipments, including Basilisk Collar and Accorder’s Shield, plus the Everflowing Chalice which has been left in.